First, a bill that gives immunity to doctors who lie to couples about the results of their prenatal tests in order to prevent them from getting an abortion. Now, a bill that would give your boss the green light to fire you for using birth control. You think I am kidding? I wish. For a decade now, Arizona insurance companies have been required to provide coverage for contraception just like other prescriptions. But, because they saw an opening to score some political points, some politicians there are suddenly moving to take that coverage away from women and their families.

And we aren’t talking here just about exemptions for religiously affiliated employers like Catholic hospitals and universities. We are talking about authorizing secular, for-profit employers to deny a woman coverage for birth control if the employer doesn’t believe that she and her partner should be allowed to have sex without getting pregnant. Yup, that’s right. If the owner of the Taco Bell where you work opposes birth control, Arizona legislators want to give him a legal right to deny you insurance coverage for your pills.

Sadly, that isn’t even the half of it. You may want to sit down for this one. Arizona legislators know that whether or not her insurance covers it, a woman may get the prescription she needs to prevent an unintended pregnancy. They want to give her boss the right to control that too. The bill they are pushing would not only allow employers to take the insurance coverage away, but it would also make it easier for an employer who finds out that his employee uses birth control to fire her. You heard me right . . . to fire her.

Do you believe this? It is an outrage! My damn blood pressure went up just posting this quote.

That link will take you to an advocacy page…so you can sign a petition. I signed so many petitions regarding the Texas Planned Parenthood Defunding, state sanctioned rape laws and other ridiculous anti-woman legislation…and it did not make a difference. I think the advocacy folks need to get campaigns going on Twitter, that really seems to get the ball rolling.

This weekend, everything about the United States policy in Afghanistan stopped making whatever sense it ever made in the first place.

An American soldier, Christ alone knows why, committed an act of terrorism against the Afghan people. According to reports, the soldier wandered off the base and into an Afghan village, where he systematically went door to door and murdered 16 people, including nine children. There are now the low, mumbling noises of regret from the U.S. government, and the general tone of the commentary in this country is to ponder deeply how this might affect the American “mission” in Afghanistan.

(Also, if I see one more headline calling this thing a “spree,” I may be forced to regret my own career choice. A spree is when some drunken frat-boy shoots out the streetlights on campus. This was mass murder, no different from the mass murders committed by Richard Speck or Jeffrey Dahmer or William Calley. If the American press tries to soften the edges of what happened with euphemism, which is what I suspect is already underway, the American press is guilty of one more crime against truth.)

I cannot express how sad and completely enraged I feel about this “spree” of bullets that murdered these innocent civilians.

A 38-year-old Army staff sergeant could be charged as early as today in the killings of 16 Afghan civilians in southern Kandahar province, a U.S. military official said Monday.

The Army soldier, whose identity wasn’t yet being released, is based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, officials said. He was in military custody and was expected to be charged in Kabul.

The staff sergeant had done three tours of duty in Iraq before deploying to Afghanistan, renewing the question of whether the multiple deployments — which have become the norm for U.S. service members over the past decade — contributed to emotional stress that set off the shooting spree, the worst of its kind in the decade-long U.S. war in Afghanistan.

This story has affected me greatly. My fingers are numb when it comes to writing about what this killer did. (Or, quiet possible killers.)

Afghans are expressing growing skepticism that a shooting rampage that killed 16 civilians was carried out by a single U.S. soldier.

Abdul Rahum Ayubi, who is a lawmaker from Kandahar province where the tragedy occurred, said Monday it seemed impossible for one soldier to cover the ground between the houses that were attacked — over a mile (2 kilometers) — and also burn the dead bodies.

Bismullah Afghanmal, a parliament member, said the reports he received from villagers indicate the shooting before dawn Sunday came from several directions.

Meir Dagan has been described as “hard-charging” and “stops at nothing.” For more than eight years, Dagan made full use of those qualities as chief of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, where he focused on keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. When that job ended, Dagan did something unheard of for an ex-Mossad chief: he spoke out publicly, voicing opposition to Israel launching preemptive airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities anytime soon. Dagan believes the Iranian regime is a rational one and even its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – who has called for Israel to be annihilated – acts in a somewhat rational way when it comes to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Lesley Stahl reports.

A certain anonymous commenter has become internet-infamous in the last few weeks by dropping some incredibly detailed, disturbing and very insidery gossip about Hollywood — regarding incest, pedophilia, and secret call girl rings that allegedly involve young starlets like Hayden Panettiere and Amanda Bynes — in the comments section of a popular blind item blog. Crazier than what he’s saying is who many believe is doing the blabbing: Robert Downey Jr.

That is it, I told you it was a dump!

What are you all doing this evening…any thoughts…what else are you reading about tonight?

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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.

You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.